True Made Foods to attend Rabobank’s premier Client Appreciation Events in December in New York, which attracts C-Suite from leading global food, beverage and agribusiness companies.

True Made Foods to also receive mentorship from IBM Watson Ecosystem Team on how to bring cognitive computing and artificial intelligence to their business.

NEW YORK—MARCH 7, 2016—Rabobank, the world’s premier food & agribusiness bank, has announced that True Made Foods has won the FoodBytes! Brooklyn People’s Choice Award. True Made Foods is a startup company that uses fresh vegetables to naturally sweeten its products (such as True Ketchup, True BBQ Sauce and Veracha Hot Sauce) whilst drastically cutting back on added sugar, providing consumers with a tasty healthy alternative.

The jam-packed half-day FoodBytes! event took place at The Hall at MP in Williamsburg, on Thursday, March 3rd. FoodBytes! is dedicated to helping investors in the food industry meet startups in the food and ag space that are disrupting and/or innovating in food-related software and applications, distribution, manufacturing, production and more.

The People’s Choice Award was decided by the FoodBytes! Brooklyn audience of more than 250 via SMS voting. As the FoodBytes! Brooklyn People’s Choice Award winner, True Made Foods will attend Rabobank’s premier invitation-only Client Appreciation Events this December in New York City, which attracts C-suite representation from over 300 of North America’s leading food, beverage and agribusiness companies. Additionally, True Made Foods will also receive mentorship from the IBM Watson Ecosystem team on how to bring cognitive computing and artificial intelligence to its business. True Made Foods also receives the right to use the FoodBytes! People’s Choice Award logo in its marketing material.

Abraham Kamarck, Co-Founder & CEO of True Made Foods, said, “Winning the FoodBytes! Brooklyn People’s Choice Award is humbling because the other contestants were really amazing and all we have at the end of the day is ketchup. We’ve had a tremendous response to a household product that people love, and we are very proud of that. Kevin Powell, Co-Founder and President, True Made Foods, and I are looking forward to the opportunity of presenting to over 300 food and ag CEOs in December and for them to hopefully become customers of True Made Foods. I’m also humbled to win this prize with IBM Watson and can’t wait to get started with them and think it will really help our business to go to the next level. Our promise to our customer is to always improve our products.”

FoodBytes! Brooklyn attendees - investors, technologists, media, and others - saw live demonstrations from rising stars who are innovating and disrupting in the food industry, had the chance to converse with food industry leaders, and network with food industry peers and opinion leaders, among many others. Photos from FoodBytes! Brooklyn are available here, via Getty Images.

Manuel Gonzalez, Head of Rabobank’s West Coast Office, said, “Congratulations to True Made Foods on winning the FoodBytes! Brooklyn People’s Choice Award. This business is the perfect cross over between indulgence and health and it’s great to see veterans come back and succeed in business and continue to do good by consumers. We’re thrilled to see the continued strong support behind FoodBytes! where food, ag and tech is the focus - an event for people working in food, developing ideas around food, and taking progressive risks in food technology. We look forward to continuing the FoodBytes! mission and bringing the event to San Francisco and Boulder later in year.”

In addition to True Made Foods, nine other companies pitched their business ideas at FoodBytes! Brooklyn:

The Chaat Co - recently launched a line of savory yogurt snacks inspired by the unique flavors and ingredients of Indian street snacks commonly known as "chaat". The company intends to extend the $8B American yogurt market, consisting primarily of a sweet product for breakfast, into a savory snack with no-added sugar and crunchy lentil puffs as toppings.

DouxMatok Ltd - has developed sugars with enhanced sweetness allowing for a considerable reduction in the consumption of sugars in foods and beverages whilst retaining the same “full sugar experience”. DouxMatok sugars have been successfully tested by leading global companies in baked products, morning cereals, dairy products, chocolates & other confectionery and in a number of beverages.

NOA Potions – produce a beverage (NOA Relaxation) with natural herbs that lessens stress and increases focus. They have combined cutting-edge scientific research with ancient traditions and is made from natural ingredients and inspired by the purity of the Scandinavian nature.

LoveTheWild – pairs sustainable fish with bold flavors and easy cooking instructions for an all-in-one solution to cooking great, healthy meals at home. Increasing seafood consumptions will have a meaningful impact on population health, and lighten our agricultural footprints on the earth.

Masienda – sell Mexican corn to meet the demands of chefs producing high quality Mexican food in New York, Los Angeles and beyond. Their core mission is to source, import and purvey the highest quality products while creating a fair market that promotes agricultural biodiversity, sustainability and supports smallholder farmers in Mexico. Masienda will begin offering a catalog of value-added products in 2016, including fresh heirloom tortillas, masa harina and chips.

Kakaxi - a 21st century solution to the growing disconnect between farmers and consumer. The Kakaxi smart-farm monitoring device and mobile App provides valuable information to farmers through data collection and satisfies consumer curiosity through time-lapse video and social news feed.

Arable Labs – created the Pulsepod – a complete solution for crop management that provides scientific quality measurements such as rainfall, crop water demand, water stress, microclimate, canopy biomass and more. Jam-packed with sensors that fit into the palm of your hand and weighs under a pound with integrated mounting so it can be used anywhere in vegetables, field crops, perennials or pastures.

FoodBytes! is a premiere event series committed to connecting food, agribusiness, beverage and tech start-ups with investors, executives and industry leaders. FoodBytes! Brooklyn, was the first of the series to be held on the East Coast. SF New Tech, San Francisco's largest and longest-running tech showcase company, and Food + Tech Connect, the New-York based site of record and community for the food tech and innovation sector, partnered with Rabobank to bring FoodBytes! to New York. Whole Foods Market is the Presenting Sponsor for the 2016 FoodBytes! events in Brooklyn, San Francisco and Boulder. Media partners for FoodBytes! Brooklyn included Edible Brooklyn & Gothamist. To view curated FoodBytes! Brooklyn content, please search for the hashtag #FoodBytes.

FoodBytes! San Francisco and Boulder are scheduled for the second half of 2016.